Dare Great Things

Leadership has many definitions but all of them have one thing in common:  people have to follow.  Regardless of how good your idea is or how passionate you are about it, if you can’t bring other people along with you, you will not be able to lead successfully.  But effectively sharing your vision and your passion is more than just a natural talent.  It’s a skill that can be studied and harnessed.  And what is more, it is an especial gift that Christ gives to the world through his Christian leaders.

Everybody who is successful knows that great ideas are only the beginning.  You need a strategic plan, you need helpers along the journey, and you need the staying power of pure determination.  Does our faith have anything to do with this?  Does being a Christian give an advantage to leaders?  Or is there any overlap between the faith and the demands of our practical life?  We believe that there is and one of the best places to see it is in the beauty of grit.

Getting things done.  How do I pass from ability to action?  I may know what is right, I may know what I need to do, but actually doing it is a whole other thing.  What’s more, sometimes the risks involved of actually doing something and putting my name to paper are quite daunting.  What if I’m wrong?  Can I afford to pay the consequences for my choices?  Many people prefer to simply hide.  How can my faith in God help me to pass from potential into action and make the difference I really want to make?

One of the hardest parts about leading is making choices.  It seems that if you choose one thing, you can’t have another.  And the perspective of missing out on something can make us afraid.  How can we be sure that what we chose is really the best way?  Would life be easier if we didn’t have to make those decisions at all?  I find it fascinating that God forces us to make decisions.  It’s almost like God isn’t afraid of making us choose.  How can we as leaders make the best decisions?  What’s the secret to choosing well?

When it comes to leadership, so much can be said and so much has been said but sometimes it can be a little confusing.  What exactly is meant by leadership?  What is not leadership?  What comes first and defines the rest?  In the approach we take at the Saint John Leadership Network, leadership begins with what we call aspiration.  Profoundly put, this means the ability we have to dream.  In today’s course we examine where dreams come from and how to recover its power in our lives. 

Last week Dare Great Things passed a milestone.  We issued our two hundred and first episode.  Our past episodes have been an amazing journey through stories and documents and lives of the saints that have inspired us.  I’m really excited to be able to start something new now.  Starting with Episode 202 we will begin to present the Saint John Leadership Network’s own proper teaching about leadership.  We call it AUDEO and I am honored to share it with you.  In today’s episode I give an overview of this unique Catholic take on leadership. 

In his encyclical letter, Rerum Novarum, Pope Leo XIII makes an astounding claim.  He claims that the involvement of religion in the affairs of the state and the economy is necessary as a means to regulate and perfect the potentials of the same.  The same can be applies to each one of us in our workplaces where we lead.  Understanding how our faith impacts the well running of our offices can help us be convinced of the power of our faith in our business.

It has been said that human society can be divided into those who have and those who have not.  For many this opposition is the source of a lot of contention and fighting.  But does it have to be this way?  In his encyclical, “Rerum Novarum”, Pope Leo XIII uses this very question as an opportunity to present an attractive proposition of the Gospel.  In fact, Christians need to fill the space of possessions, talents, needs, and wants with Jesus Christ.  This is the role of the Catholic leader.

Let’s face it, work is hard, and a lot of people would prefer not to work if they didn’t have to.  What would a world look like where people no longer worked?  People no longer owned things?  Wouldn’t it be better or in fact could it be really worse?  Pope Leo XIII in his encyclical Rerum Novarum explores this asking the question about the link between work and dignity.  It becomes a practical question for each one of us.

It’s common place to hear people say that things are happening today that have never happened before and that social tensions today are unique.  However true that statement might be it needs to be grounded in history.  In point of fact, the political tensions, the social tensions we suffer from today have roots as far back as the industrial era.  Encyclical “Rerum Novarum” by Pope Leo XIII addressed many of these tensions and by studying them we can gain jewels of wisdom for our approach today. 

It has been said that success is more difficult to handle than failure.  For those of us striving for success this can be hard to hear.  How can I be successful with success and why do worldly honors trip up more people than difficulty and challenge?  St. Thomas Aquinas tackles this question when he treats the virtue of magnanimity.  How can Christians really strive after greatness and stay humble?  This is the secret of the virtues and the secret that St. Thomas teaches about in his Summa Theologica.

The topic of leadership is not always popular among Christians.  In particular because many Christians see leadership as the antithesis to humility.  Afterall, how are you supposed to remain humble while deploying all of your gifts in the sight of others?  How are you supposed to remain humble while seeking after success?  St. Thomas Aquinas gives some amazing insights into the virtue of humility and shows that it is actually essential for every leader and that in fact true leadership can make you humble.

Living a life according to virtue is difficult for anybody.  But those in roles of leadership are under particular scrutiny by those whom they serve.  Everyday their every decision has impact on the lives of those who are underneath them.  For this reason, leaders have a special need for the virtue of justice.  By justice each person is given what is their due.  But justice presents special challenges both in its acquisition and in its practice.  Thank goodness for God’s grace. 

Whether we are leading a family or a business, all leaders have to do things they don’t want to do.  As soon as we assume the mantle of leadership we assume the mantle of facing things that could hurt us – that could take valuable time away, valuable resources away or even inflict pain at different levels of our life.  This means that leaders have to be brave.  St. Thomas Aquinas describes the virtue of bravery as fortitude and this third of the cardinal virtues is what we are focusing on today.

If you were to take a poll of famous topics for leadership talks, temperance would not rank in the top ten.  For most people temperance has a negative connotation, as if it were something that would stifle our energies or keep us from the fullness of life.  St. Thomas Aquinas has a very different vision for temperance.  According to him, temperance is necessary for the full life and has the power to guarantee that we attain the real good and excellence for which we are called.  This is why studying it is so important for us today.

If there’s one thing that organizational leaders share in common it’s the need to know how to advance when no one else does.  Being at the top means being in charge and being at the top means making decisions that will influence the entire organization for the better or for the worse.  The goal, obviously, is to make decisions well and this ability is much more than instinct.  For the ancients, they called it the virtue of prudence.  I’d like to look at St. Thomas Aquinas and what his teaching on prudence has to teach us today.

There is a lot of talk today in Catholic circles about virtuous leadership.  This is a good thing but do we know why virtue is important?  Why does Catholic teaching emphasize virtue so much and why should it be important to business leadership?  In this second of a six part series I lead our participants through an examination of the importance of identity for leadership and the importance of virtue for identity.  If we are going to admit that leadership comes from who we are and virtues help define who we are, then we see the importance of virtues for leadership.

Today, talking about character based leadership has become something fashionable.  Books, podcasts, seminars all focus in on on the term virtue.  By so doing we feel like we have checked of our Christian box in leadership and that we can safely move on.  But the issue is actually much more explosive.  Character influences leadership in ways that are profound and fruitful.  The question is why?  In this first of a six part series I would like to look at the question more deeply. 

Work is a constant in everyone’s life.  While we can enjoy it or we can suffer from it we cannot avoid it.  But how can I make it better both for myself and for the people that I manage and the people who benefit from it?  And if I work in business how can I ensure that my business remains ethical – truly focused on the true good?  The key is to look at work and business from the human perspective.  It is something done for the human person – for the benefit of everyone else.

Leaders don’t get to be in the positions they have by doing nothing.  Instead they are men and women of action.  But does this mean they have to leave their people behind?  Is there a way to unite both action and productivity?  In the Catholic imagination the two are linked.  In the 13th century a Dominican friar named St. Thomas Aquinas gave valuable insight into this very question by comparing human leadership with God’s governing of the world.